Moldova turns Erdogan down, Turkey invades int’l education through Maarif Foundation

Mohamed Abdel-Ghaffar

Since the failed military coup play in July 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been chasing every string related his opponent Fethullah Gulen, who resides in the United States, accusing him of orchestrating claimed coup.

Despite that the Gulen Movement Schools are a network of private or semi-private schools founded by the members of the Gulen movement, Erdogan seeks to take over them and use as tools to spread his ideas.

Erdogan’s latest attempt was during Moldovan President Igor Dodon’s visit to Ankara on December 30, 2019. He demanded Moldova to transfer the ownership of the Liceul Orizont school, reported to be linked to Gulen, to the Turkish Maarif Foundation, which is being run by Erdogan’s son, Bilal.

Although the Moldovan president did not comment, the country’s Ministry of Education issued an official statement to respond to Erdogan, saying, “These schools are private investments, which cannot be transferred in any way.”

The Maarif Foundation was founded by the AK Party in 2016 after the Parliament approved a law to found it for the aim of establishing schools around the world and assigning Erdogan’s son on to of its management.

Erdogan mainly uses the foundation to spread his ideologies across 70 countries around the world, in addition to facing Gulen’s schools around 170 countries.

Turkey succeeded in persuading several countries such as Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, Chad and Pakistan, in addition to Mali, which has 21 schools, and 18 African countries, including Sudan, to host the Maarif Foundation on their lands.

In November 2017, the Maarif Foundation opened its branch in Tunisia, which was celebrated by Ennahda movement, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the country.

According to a BBC report, Turkish workers in the Gulen schools in Somalia were deported to their country in September 2017, after the schools were closed for a short period, before reopening with funding from the Turkish embassy there.

This was repeated in Pakistan, where 23 teachers in Gulen schools were dismissed and deported to their countries, December 2017, and were replaced by loyalist of Erdogan’s party.